Michael Schumacher has been punished for causing a collision with Bruno Senna at today’s Spanish Grand Prix.

Under braking at turn 1, Michael hit the back of Bruno’s Williams, causing both cars to spear into the gravel trap. Schumacher retired on the spot, while Senna continued on for half a lap before pulling over.

After the incident, Schumacher branded Senna an “idiot”, claiming he moved in the braking zone, but the stewards saw the event differently.

Lewis Hamilton has been excluded from Spanish GP qualifying, as the team illegally didn’t fuel up his car to the correct amount required.

FIA article 6.6 states that if a fuel sample is required from a car (all cars in Q3 are required), then “the car concerned must first have been driven back to the pits under its own power”.

Hamilton stopped on track at Campsa corner, about half way through the track. It is understood that he did have the fuel amount required when he stopped, but was instructed to pull over by his mechanics. More than likely, if he had continued on, he would have dropped below the limit.

Lewis will start the Spanish Grand Prix from the back of the grid, behind the HRT of Narain Karthikeyan – who was allowed to race despite being 1.8 seconds outside the 107% rule.

According to Gary Anderson of the BBC, a McLaren engineer “turned the [fuel] tap to ‘drain’ instead of ‘fill’ briefly, realised his error but engineers sent car out.”

This of course leaves Pastor Maldonado on pole position for tomorrow’s race. If he can hold the pace he showed in qualifying, we will be in for a fascinating race.

HRT will not race tomorrow’s Australian Grand Prix after failing to qualify.

The troubled team failed to qualify within the 107% rule by over a second, and the stewards threw out their request to take part in the race.

This is the second year a row that HRT have failed to qualify for the first race of the season. Narain Karthikeyan, who was 1.4 seconds off the 107% rule, blamed DRS and hydraulics failures on his F112:

"I didn't have the DRS working and had issues with the power steering, so we
could have easily been in.
The DRS alone is worth about nine tenths [of a second], and the power steering
is virtually non-existent, it's almost impossible to drive. I think the problem
is that the hydraulics are getting so hot, the viscosity of the fluid is thinner."

Interestingly, Karthikeyan also claimed the team would struggle massively in Malaysia. He cited cooling issues on the F112, combined with Kuala Lumpur’s extreme temperatures, as the reason for this.

Only a few years ago in Formula 1, if a team used a new engine after less than two Grands Prix, they were docked 10 places on the grid – a standard penalty.

Today, we have seen Pastor Maldonado’s blatant swerve at Lewis Hamilton, replied to by the stewards with nothing more than a 5-place grid drop.

The steward’s actions today seem to indicate that there was very little dangerous about Maldonado’s incident – which is completely untrue.

First of all, and most obviously, the clash occured right beside a spectator area, with only a wire fence protecting the fans. The chances of a piece of debris hitting a spectator cannot be ruled out.

Secondly, this sets a terrible example for up-and-coming race drivers. Trying to take out another driver might be acceptable on F1 2010 online (it pretty much is), but it cannot be a part of the highest class racing series in the world.

This kind of incident has happened before – in the GT1 championship, Stefan Mucke accidentaly took out Richard Westbrook, after Mucke moved alongside the driver to complain about an incident, before slamming into him and taking both cars out.

Such behaviour in high-level motorsport is unacceptable, and the FIA must put a stop to it. Extremely lenient penalties have been given to Mucke and Maldonado, which is no example to give to young drivers.

Opinions differ on this matter, but I feel that Maldonado made a deliberate attempt to damage Hamilton’s car. I’m sure he wasn’t aiming to take him out, but this very easily could have been the case.

Pastor Maldonado has been handed a 5-place grid penalty for a deliberate collision with Lewis Hamilton in qualifying.

Lewis muscled past the Williams on track while battling for position for their last lap in Q2. Maldonado’s lap was heavily disrupted by the battle, and failed to progress to Q3. After the session ended, Pastor swerved into the side of Lewis’ car, damaging the McLaren’s front wing and sidepod.

Hamilton was able to participate in Q3 (with sticky tape on his sidepods, if anyone noticed!) after several minutes of repairs, and qualified second.

The stewards decided that Maldonado had acted dangerously, and the Venezuelan driver will now start from 21st place.

Lewis has received a reprimand for the incident. Here is how he described the incident:

"I was at the end of my Q2 lap and I got to the chicane as I was just finishing and
there were two Williams just sitting there going very, very slow – I think they were
probably preparing to start for another lap, but it was already red light [chequered
flag, end of Q2].
So I tried and get past, which I did. I lost quite a lot of time there but as I was
coming through the exit of turn one I saw Maldonado approaching quite quickly and he
came around me, I didn’t move anywhere, but [he] happened to swipe across me.
I don’t know whether it was intentional or not, but I guess we’ll see shortly.
The front wing was quite badly damaged, my side pod… I thought my front suspension
was damaged, I think the front towing is a little bit out, but fortunately the guys
did a great job to put it back together.
I just think once the flag is out and the red lights are on there’s no need to be
racing, there should never ever be an incident but unfortunately there was.”
I think it was quite serious and just unfortunate that neither of us, and particularly
him, flipped it or had a big, big crash, so I think we’re quite lucky there."

Sebastien Buemi has been ordered to take a 5-place grid penalty for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The stewards decided that he was at fault for causing a collision between the Toro Rosso and Nick Heidfeld early on in the German GP.

Approaching the Veedol chicane, Heidfeld was squeezed onto the grass by Buemi, then the Renault was launched into the gravel trap and out of the race. Buemi continued, but pitted for repairs to his rear right tyre.

Although the television images suggested Buemi squeezed Nick off the track, Sebastien claims “Heidfeld drove into me”.

This follows Buemi being disqualified from qualfying, after a fuel irregularity with his car.

In related news, the FIA has stated it will not take any action against Nick Heidfeld, who was issued a drive-through penalty (for colliding with Paul di Resta) before he crashed out.

Both McLaren and Sauber have suffered the wrath of the stewards after the British Grand Prix.

Both teams have received fines after seperate incidents in the pit lane, where Jenson Button and Kamui Kobayashi respectively were unsafely released from their box.

In Jenson’s case, the front right wheel was not secured before the lollipop was lifted. In Kamui’s case, a slow getaway meant his Sauber went alongside Rubens Barrichello, forcing Kobayashi to take evasive action – running over the Force India wheel guns in the process.

Sauber received a €20,000 fine, as well as the drive-through penalty sustained in the race. As McLaren’s mistake was much less dangerous, the Woking team will only pay €5,000.

Both Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton have been dealt 20-second time penalties after the Malaysian Grand Prix.

The stewards ruled that both drivers acted illegaly while battling for position near the end of the race.

Onboard with Hamilton as Alonso clips his front wing off the McLaren

Alonso drew close to Hamilton with his KERS system, but not DRS. Lewis moved twice off his line to defend, and Fernando clipped the back of the McLaren, taking off part of his front wing, but Hamilton’s car emerged unscathed.

However, the stewards believe that Hamilton moving off his line twice, and Alonso making contact with the McLaren, both deserved penalties.

Facts: The Driver of car 3 made more than one change of direction to defend a position
Offence: Breach of Article 20.2 of the 2011 FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations
Penalty: Drive through penalty, imposed after the race in accordance with Article 16.3
(20 seconds added to elapsed time).
Stewards’ decision 51 (Lewis Hamilton)
Fact: Caused a collision with car 3.
Offence: Involved in an incident as defined by Article 16.1 of the 2011 FIA Formula
One Sporting Regulations
Penalty: Drive through penalty, imposed after the race in accordance with Article
16.3 (20 seconds added to elapsed time).
Stewards’ decision 52 (Fernando Alonso)

It is worth noting that Hamilton was not weaving at the time of the accident, rather a lap beforehand. This video shows how, on the main straight, Lewis moved twice:

However, I can’t see how either of these penalties are justified. Lewis had received a warning for the same (but more erratic) move a year ago in Malaysia, but it seems slightly harsh.

Alonso, meanwhile, had already lost out hugely by losing his front wing, so what’s the point of penalising him? The introduction of KERS and DRS was designed for drivers to properly race each other, and slapping drivers’ wrists for the slightest offence or mistake is not the way to carry forward this message.

Lewis Hamilton has avoided a potential grid penalty ahead of tomorrow’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, after an incident with Felipe Massa in Q2 in qualifying today.

As Massa was on a hot lap, entering Turn 4, Hamilton was close to the apex of the corner, and accidentaly turned into Massa, realised his mistake, then swerved off the track to avoid the Ferrari, hitting a camera bollard in the process. This incident, along with a separate one involving Massa and Rubens Barrichello, were reported to the stewards, but no action was taken in either case.

Here is what Massa had to say about the incident:

"On my last out-lap, I came up behind so much traffic and it
was all very confusing, especially as Hamilton, who was ahead
of me, had slowed a lot at Turn 14.
At the end of the session, I was called to the stewards to
discuss this incident and also the one with Hamilton again in
Q2.
This sort of thing can happen as can be seen from the fact
that no action was taken.